King to Paterson: How does it feel getting blindsided?

posted at 10:12 am on February 12, 2010 by Ed Morrissey

Okay, Larry King didn’t quite put it like that on his show last night when talking with Governor David Paterson of New York, who is blind. Instead, in talking about the rumors of a personal-scandal story at the New York Times that supposedly would force his resignation — a story that never materialized — King asks Paterson whether he was, er, blind to the story until someone had to read him the headlines from other newspapers and media outlets. Because, you know, it’s hard for blind people to, er, read them for themselves … awkward!

“The fact that you’ve been, not a pun intended, blind to this. In other words, people have to read the headlines to you, right?” Yup. He really did ask that.

King succeeded in blindsiding Paterson with that question, who initially couldn’t figure out what King was getting at. Initially, Paterson replied, “I don’t think my legal blindness has anything to do with it.” Even after that, Paterson politely avoids answering King’s question, preferring to offer somewhat of a non-sequitur about how his condition forced him to get tough. Why King thought Paterson’s blindness had anything to do with this is hard to explain.

However, it’s hard for me to be too tough on King for this uncomfortable moment, although it’s pretty funny. My wife is totally blind and has been for almost 30 years, and I’ve seen more than a few people trip over questions just like this in normal conversation with her. Heck, even I did when I first met her; I kept fumbling for different ways to say “See you later” and “Good to see you,” until the First Mate put me at ease with it. Our first few dates involved the symphony, dinners, walks, and so on — until I ran out of ideas that didn’t involve movies, and she explained that a good movie on occasion was fine by her.

So, to make it clear, blind people can’t read headlines in the newspapers. They do, however, have ways of reading them through adaptive technology, just as the First Mate will read this post on her computer thanks to Jaws software, others through Kurzweil scanner technology, and so on. If Paterson can be governor of New York, he can get the news on time, too. But that won’t keep people from wondering how the blind manage to do it, even occasionally on prime-time television.

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“The fact that you’ve been, not a pun intended, blind to this. In other words, people have to read the headlines to you, right? Cause you can’t see and all, and are a retard too, right? A blind retard?”

Southwest Airlines should bring back the “Wanna get away?” ad campaign. This time with only actual cases that have politicians involved. Here with King and Paterson. Biden offers several to choose from as well.

Simple mistake, and I’m not a big fan of trying to find an innocuous term for every situation because someone somewhere might find offense. Still, Larry hit the wall long ago and should have retired to a cabin somewhere to make fishing flys or something.

There are always awkward situations dealing with disabilities. A healthy sense of humor helps as with the Kirby vacuum salesman asking the blind lady if she would like to see a demonstration of the vacuum. The lady has to respond by saying she is blind so the salesman responds by asking her is she would care to feel the Kirby.

The funny — and revealing — thing about David Patterson is that in the hierarchy of New York State Democratic Party politics, he was never, ever supposed to be governor. All he was ever supposed to be was a racial sop to black voters in the state to get their to turn out for Elliot Spitzer in 2006. The fact that he became governor and planned to remain as governor angered many of the ‘tolerant, elightened’ types in the Democratic Party, so the normal rules of conduct towards a Democratic politician, let alone an African-American, physically handicapped one, never applied.

It was the left in New York politics, and the downstate media that loves them, that basically turned Patterson and his blindness into almost as big a joke as they tried to make Sarah Palin and her non-urban accent. Patterson for much of the time has been as weak and as vacillating a leader in Albany has Barack Obama has been in Washington, but the difference in how the media covers one vs. covering for the other is like night and day (or more appropriately, like an honorary Republican and a Democrat).

When you work with blind people, you become very aware of how often visual references pop up in normal conversation -especially the word “see”. It does feel very awkward because the tendency at first is to try to censure yourself. Which is all too clear to the blind person you’re talking to.

I still remember the first time I let the, “I’ll see you later.” line slip with one blind man. He smoothly responded with the old, “Not if I see you first.” line, then burst out laughing like it was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. He didn’t need to see my face to “see” my response. Things were a lot less awkward after that -at least with him.

Regarding persons with disabilities, quite often it appears that people, in their zeal to demonstrate empathy for the “afflicted” person, disregard common sense during the encounter. My wife has a service dog that helps her avoid bending over and lifting by retrieving dropped items and other small objects for her. Some people, having assumed the dog was a seeing eye dog, have asked her if that was the case even though at that moment she was getting out of the driver’s seat of a car, keys in hand, or reading signs at a museum exhibit.

quite often it appears that people, in their zeal to demonstrate empathy for the “afflicted” person, disregard common sense during the encounter.When I spent most of a year in a wheelchair people tended to think it was a life-long situation and I got some experience with some of the conflict they go through. They want to acknowledge and deal frankly with any limitations but they also don’t want to draw attention to it or say anything awkward. They get so flustered being pulled between the two that ANYTHING can fall out of their mouths.

quite often it appears that people, in their zeal to demonstrate empathy for the “afflicted” person, disregard common sense during the encounter

When I spent most of a year in a wheelchair people tended to think it was a life-long situation and I got some experience with some of the conflict they go through. They want to acknowledge and deal frankly with any limitations but they also don’t want to draw attention to it or say anything awkward. They get so flustered being pulled between the two that ANYTHING can fall out of their mouths.

There comes a time when all interviewers need to retire. Unfortunately for Larry, that was 20 years ago.

kingsjester on February 12, 2010 at 10:16 AM

Agreed, but I have to go with Ed on this too. Larry probably felt worse about asking it, after realizing what he had asked, than Paterson did, about it being asked at all. We’ve all fumbled, and felt those awkward moments. I just count my blessings that my fumbles aren’t aired for an entire nation, or world to see. lol